Job 3:11-26

3:13 For now I would have lain still and been quiet- When Job lays down he gets no rest (7:4). Job’s point “not that death is so wonderful, but that life has become intolerable. Wilson. Again, the term Sheol is not used in the passage but that is clearly the idea.

I would have been asleep then I would have been at rest- Rest is a great blessing of God tied with receiving the land of promise Ex. 33:14; Deut. 3:20; 12:10; 25:19; Josh. 1:13, 15; 21:44; 22:4; 23:1; II Sam. 7:1, 11; I Kings 5:4. This word translated rest will also be used in 3:17, 26. Job believes the same kind of rest associated with the promised land is available in Sheol. Here “Job does not hope that death will rectify the injustice of his undeserved sufferings. It will be enough that it ends them” Anderson, 106.

This roll call of Sheol includes the powerful, kings, counsellors of the earth, princes and great men (14-15, 19). It also includes the weak and powerless like infants, stillborn children, the weary, and the slaves, the small (16, 19). This list also has those who are ungodly like the wicked and prisoners (17-18). All together are united in Sheol. Death and Sheol are great equalizers for all kinds of people (Eccl. 9:2-6). Job speaks of Sheol as a place of rest (13, 17), ease (18), and freedom (19). How much of Job’s words here can be trusted? When the LORD speaks, He will ask Job how much does he really know about these things he speaks about with such authority (38:16-18)?" Smick, 891.

Job’s view of Sheol is not consistent throughout the book. For example, the words of Job 10:18-22 and 17:13-16 are much gloomier than the picture in 3:11-19. Job uses at least three of the five terms used in 3:4-6 to describe darkness in speaking of Sheol in Job 10:21-22. Other passages of the OT do not portray Sheol or death in the positive terms seen here (Ps. 6:5; 30:9; 88:11-13; 115:17; Isa. 38:18). In Ecclesiastes in particular it is death itself that renders life’s pursuits vanity (Eccl. 2:12-17, 18-23; 9:5, 10) It is probably best to see Job’s positive view of life after death in 3:11-19 not as representing his final word on Sheol, but as a manifestation of his state of mind at that time. Anything looks better to Job than his present condition.

3:21 Who long for death, but it does not come- The word long for is used for longing or waiting on God in Ps. 33:20; Isa. 8:17; 30:18; 64:4 and of God’s longing to be gracious in Isa. 30:18. God longs to be gracious to those who are longing for Him. The longing for God is most common object of such longing in the biblical account. However, here the object of longing is death and that thought appears only here in the Bible.

3:26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet- The word for at ease was used in 3:18 and is used later in Job 12:6. In 12:6 the destroyers and those who provoke God are at ease but Job has none.

The word quiet was used in 3:13. Here Job has no quiet in contrast to what he envisioned for those who are in Sheol- 3:13.

I have no rest, for trouble comes- The word for rest was used in 3:13, 17. The point is the same as that made above about the word quiet. While Job has no rest, those who are in Sheol do in 3:13, 17. The word trouble in vs. 26 is the same word translated raging in vs. 17. Interestingly, in vs. 17 the word is said to characterize the wicked. Job raging is not from his wickedness but from his depth of pain.